Water Totems

1969 Amsterdam, Netherlands

Coauthor: Theo Botschuijver, Sean Wellesley-Miller

Production: Eventstructure Research Group, Amsterdam

Water Totems consisted of air-inflated tubes that were silk-screen printed to appear like columns of water. Standing vertically and ballasted with sandbags, a group of these tubes was floated in Sloterplas, a lake in Amsterdam.

Presented as part of of Sigma Projects’ Six Events in Amsterdam, Water Totems was one of a series of situated art projects titled Artificial Landscapes.

Another, unrealized, version of Water Totems called for having the air pressure inside the tubes to be controlled by the ocean’s tidal flows, so that they would stand erect at high tide and collapse at low tide.